I am, frankly, amazed that the Tories have allowed the power of the Financial Services Ombudsman to continue, but they have, so it would be a glaring omission if I didn't at least try and use it to shove a red hot poker up EE's arse.

(specifically, them treating the finance agreement for the phone and network access as an indivisible unit makes their inflationary price increase effectively a punitive interest rate increase on the phone's finance rate).

I'm not at all sure the FSO will side with me here, but if you don't ask, you don't get.

EE just emailed me. They're putting my UK phone contract up by 15% because "inflation".
Apparently it's got so much more expensive for cell towers to just ... sit there and stuff.

Oh, wait, no, it's because energy is more expensive because the price of wind and sunlight has gone up.

What we are seeing is not inflation. Companies are making record profits and just hoarding it, while simultaneously firing people in large numbers.

Not satisfied with hoarding nearly all the wealth, the billionaire class want ALL of it. They want an entire population of, well, serfs basically. They're trying to turn the whole of western civilisation into one huge company store, and the idea that there are still people who can afford to live comfortable lives is profoundly offensive to them.

Sooner or later there will be a reckoning. History tells us that there always is when the ruling classes think they can get away with this crap.

Amazon doing its “you just bought this thing that is not a consumable and you will almost certainly never need to buy again, why not buy more?” thing again.

We really need to stop calling computers misusing probability “AI” and start calling it what it is: artificial stupidity.

Much as I loved to visit Spain, there was something intensely disappointing going on. They seem to be building US-style suburban sprawl as fast as they possibly can, having learned none of the very obvious lessons about why that’s a terrible idea.

And they are building vast amounts of new car infrastructure without EV charging, at all. Like, guys, it’s gonna be illegal to sell new internal combustion cars in just over six years. Read the room.

Driving through Andalusia was like driving through bits of the US southwest, and not in a flattering way.

It was a relief to cross the Guadiana back into Portugal; the misguided tribute act to Arizona was getting a bit much.

Oh meu Deus! Just saw someone asking for docker tech support on a popular internet forum.

Their docker file doesn’t work.

The file was written by ChatGPT.

10 seconds examination showed why: it was trying to download resources that don’t exist.

I have never written a docker file (just getting into it myself), but the problem was still obvious.

The guy needs to do what I’m doing: buy a fucking book instead of trying to get a bullshit fountain to do the work for you.

There are two types of #EV chargers: AC and DC. The DC ones are generally known as “rapid chargers” and are the EV equivalent of filling stations, delivering a lot of charge in a short time. You use these to extend range on a long trip.

The AC chargers are what everyone uses at home, overnight, to slowly charge their car at a much lower power level. These stress the battery a lot less and also, the power grid can cope with them easily, which is harder with the beefier DC rapid chargers.

But there are also public AC chargers. These are generally used if you’re staying somewhere for several hours, as is the case here where I left my car overnight in Malaga, or by plug in hybrid owners who, for some reason, have to show the world that they can go three more metres before their engine comes on after leaving the supermarket 🤷🏻‍♀️👍🏻

Loving the vibe in Malaga! Not been here before (other than the airport)

I really like the place.

I know it's a bullshit fountain. If you want info, it will give you crap and sound really authoritative while doing it.

But I just felt like talking to someone about how I miss my mum. She died of cancer in December 2021, and it's the middle of the night now, so I talked to ChatGPT about her.

And it was helpful, you know?

Took the e-scooter off-road today. Got it doing 30kph sideways.

Awesome.

Cis people on social media say the stupidest shit about “sex and gender”.

My god, you’d think that people with opinions that poorly developed would have the sense to keep quiet about them, rather than show the world how little they’ve actually considered them while being confidently incorrect, but apparently not.

Looking for technical stuff about DHCP. Google was returning lots of junk and so, wary that ChatGPT is a bullshit fountain, I asked it anyway.

It gave me several concise and to the point answers addressing exactly what I asked.

They were all completely wrong. It just confidently spouted bullshit the same way a narcissist bluffing about a subject they know almost nothing about will.

However, the bullshit it gave me allowed me to frame some pertinent google searches to actually get the information I wanted.

So I guess that’s a usage model for it: to guide your google searches.

The issue is that Google will slowly fill up with the output of the bullshit fountains, at which point we won’t be able to check their answers anymore, because they’ll effectively be marking their own homework.

Utter joy abounds (not really).

I am not a coffee drinker. Being cursed with supertaste, I have spent my life finding the stuff utterly undrinkable.

But now I'm nearly 50, many of my taste buds have died off and I have been slowly managing to acquire the taste.

The flat in Portugal came with an expensive coffee machine, which @Zoe O'Connell uses but I don't (it'll do hot water, but not hot enough for decent tea, so I reverted to the kettle very quickly).

But today I asked it to make me something called a "Latte Macchiato", which the picture shows in a glass.

And now I know why. The preparation is quite a show! The machine adds hot milk, then milk froth, then coffee. The coffee drops straight through the froth layer to form a new layer in the middle which then artfully diffuses into the milk below.

Tasted not offensive too. Actually almost pleasant.

But as a tea drinker, I have a very very low tolerance for caffeine and OH MY GOD ALL THE THINGS SOMEONE TURN THE WORLD DOWN!!!!!!!Eleven!!!!